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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28464210">Hector's Escape</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffee_hermit/pseuds/coffee_hermit'>coffee_hermit</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Hijinks &amp; Shenanigans, I just had a lot of fun with this one, RotT Spoilers, post RotT</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:15:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,698</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28464210</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffee_hermit/pseuds/coffee_hermit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Relius didn't seem to notice that Hector's eyes were slowly slipping shut, and since Hector was sitting with his back to his attendants, there was no one to kick his foot under the table to warn him before his mother leaned over and pinched his ear.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Attolia | Irene/Eugenides</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hector's Escape</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I finished Return of the Thief months ago and straight up have not stopped thinking about the absolute chaos that these kids are going to be.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hector was bored.</p><p>Usually, being the son of the high king and his wife who was Attolia, Hector's boredom resulted in exasperated attendants and little else. With so many eyes on him during the day, it was difficult to get up to much trouble, no matter how his eyes wanted to shut in quiet agony as his teachers and attendants droned on with his lessons. Difficult, but not impossible. Just last week, Hector and his twin sister had upended a vat of spoiled milk over the head of their least favorite tutor while he walked across a courtyard. They'd made their escape swiftly, snickering all the while, and he would have never known it was them, except that they'd managed to bump into the captain of their mother's guard halfway back to their rooms. Apparently, one of their attendants - Hector still wasn't sure which one - had noticed that they'd disappeared from their rooms, and snitched. To Teleus, no less.</p><p>Hector was quite sure that had been punishment enough for the both of them, but neither of his parents had agreed.</p><p>So. Today was different. His mother who was Attolia sat at the wooden table across from him, listening attentively to Relius talk. There would be no slipping out from under anyone's nose today. Irene had too much experience with that sort of thing.</p><p>Relius didn't seem to notice that Hector's eyes were slowly slipping shut, and since Hector was sitting with his back to his attendants, there was no one to kick his foot under the table to warn him before his mother leaned over and pinched his ear.</p><p>Hector flinched, dragging her hand, and Attolia released him, but not before he met her gaze. Sitting up straighter in his chair, he made a renewed attempt to listen to Relius's account of the peninsula's recent skirmish with a small squadron of Roan forces near the border. Despite his father, Eugenides, taking (stealing? Roa still seemed to think so) a portion of Roa's land during the war, there was still the occasional disturbance at the border. Attolia had thought the account a good learning moment for her son who would one day be Attolis. Since his and Eugenia's thirteenth birthday three months ago, she'd been dragging him to more and more meetings with men older than the gods and twice as boring. At least the gods had thunderbolts. Relius had fading eyesight, a lot of books, and very little else to recommend himself.</p><p>The heavy door behind them shifted open, and Relius paused, squinting at the intrusion. Hector took a breath and looked over his shoulder, praying to every God he could think of for a real distraction. To his disappointment, one of his sister's attendants stepped through, and placidly walked to where Attolia sat, bending down to speak to her, too quiet for Hector or Relius to hear.</p><p>Attolia sat perfectly still, pale hands folded in the velvet of her heavy winter gown, while she heard the attendant's message. Hector was about to open his mouth to ask what it was - was Eugenia ill? or injured? - but when he turned his head, he caught movement out the window, a dark shape shooting past the small diamond-shaped glass panes, indistinct but definitely human sized.</p><p>The attendant cried out, in relief or fear, Hector couldn't tell. The crenellations along this side of the palace were narrow and angled, a few inches of decorative stonework, not meant for strolling. Especially not in the middle of winter, when that side of the castle spent months covered in a slippery sheet of ice. But the figure had been moving fast.</p><p>Attolia's head snapped around to follow both their gazes before she stood, and Relius frowned, but even he must have seen the dark shape, because he did not speak again. Hector had to hold back a laugh.</p><p>"Where is His Majesty, the High King today?" Attolia asked the room, and there was a moment of deathly, frightened silence before another dark shape shot past the window, and Irene closed her eyes.</p><p>"Mum -"</p><p>"Absolutely not, Hector."</p><p>"But Mum!"</p><p>Attolia leveled a look at her son that had stopped barons and ambassadors in their tracks. Hector glared back at her, putting everything he had into it. "This is so unfair!"</p><p>"Many things are, my son." She shot back, and nodded at an attendant over his shoulder. Hurriedly, his attendants packed his books and papers and pulled him out of his chair, abandoning the queen. Outside the doors, her own attendants waited, all of them as impassive as the queen herself. Hector huffed, but followed his attendants down the hallways, zig-zagging across the palace while servants and nobility alike paused in what they were doing to whisper to each other, everyone looking over their shoulders as if they might catch a glimpse of the slippery High King and his daughter at any moment.</p><p>Hector was in sight of his and his sister's apartments when he felt a tug at his elbow, and he let the pressure of the thin arm carry his along with it. Without pausing, he slipped his body between two of his attendants as a panel in the wall opened up and he disappeared into it. As the panel shut back into place, he could hear two of his attendants groan and another swear.</p><p>"Cut them off at Hanaktos's rooms." He heard, but it was faint, already behind them and muffled by the walls. Eugenia was already tripping ahead of him, her lithe body tucking itself into the odd corners of the narrow passage between the rooms of the palace.</p><p>"Mum's going to murder you both." Hector told his sister a little breathlessly.</p><p>Eugenia snorted. "She's going to have to catch me first. Sorry we couldn't get you out of meeting with Relius." She told him, shooting a concerned look over her shoulder.</p><p>Hector shrugged. Out of all the palace secret-keepers that Attolia met with, Hector didn't mind Relius so much. He had good stories, if he could be persuaded to tell them, which wasn't often. And he did have a lot of books. Hector liked books. Far more than Eugenia did.</p><p>"Costis and Kamet are back.” Eugenia told him softly. “Da wanted to meet with them before anyone else knows, so we're creating a diversion. Mum won't care once she finds out."</p><p>Hector was fairly certain Attolia would care when she found out, but he was relieved to know that it would be father's problem and not his. "Where were they again?" He asked. It had been over a year since he'd seen his father's friends. (or spies, depending on who you asked)</p><p>Eugenia scoffed. "Ferria! Don't you listen at any of those meetings you attend?"</p><p>"Not if I can help it." He responded.</p><p>"How are you going to be king if you don't listen?"</p><p>"Shut up, Gen. You sound like mum."</p><p>Eugenia stuck her tongue out at him, but didn't argue. Hector took pity on her and changed the subject.</p><p>"So what's the plan?"</p><p>"What plan?"</p><p>"The diversion?"</p><p>"Oh. This." She said, spreading her hands out as she crouched under a lintel bisecting their path, and then she dropped down a few feet onto the lower level of the passageway as it continued down towards the royal gardens. "We make everyone panic thinking they're about to get milk dumped on them and then pop out into the gardens in a few minutes."</p><p>Hector was a little disappointed.</p><p>"We can't spill milk on anyone?"</p><p>Eugenia shook her head sadly. "Da said not to."</p><p>"Where is Da meeting Kamet?"</p><p>"And Costis." Eugenia corrected.</p><p>"Kamet's the one with the information."</p><p>Eugenia shrugged, but she didn't argue the point. "The nursery." Hector had to give it to his father. No one would expect a meeting discussing state secrets to be in the room his youngest sister was probably currently asleep in.</p><p>"You want to go listen in?" Hector asked. Eugenia paused, and then turned to eye him warily.</p><p>"Yes." She decided, and Hector grinned at her.</p><p>They doubled back along the wall, taking the first split they came to. Hector had to wriggle his shoulders to fit into the narrow passage while Eugenia slipped through easily, gaining ground. He'd been finding more and more recently that it was getting more difficult to run after Eugenia like this. The pair of them were so alike that when they'd been babies, they'd often been mistaken for each other. They both had their parents' dark hair, although Eugenia was paler and sharp-edged, like their mother. Hector had his father's Eddisian brown skin, darkened even more so by all the time he spent out of doors, running with Gen or practicing with his tutors from the Royal Guard. He also, in the last year, had gained a few inches of height on his sister, which he would have been able to tease her about more if they weren't always scrabbling their way through the narrow back channels of the palace. She always had the upper hand here.</p><p>"So, Ferria." Hector said, trying for conversational and sounding winded instead, trying to keep up with Eugenia's fleet steps. "D'you think they brought us anything? Maybe a harp for you?"</p><p>Eugenia snorted softly. "I think I have enough harps, thank you, brother."</p><p>"Yes, but what if you had another one? What would that be, seven? Eight?"</p><p>Eugenia paused, tilting her face to listen, and Hector stopped as well. Muffled voices from the other side of the wall seemed to be arguing, and it was tempting to stay and eavesdrop, but they both had a goal in mind, and moved silently and carefully past that part of the wall.</p><p>When they were clear, Eugenia grimaced at him. "Nine! Aunt Helen sent me one for the Solstice! I'm going to drown in harps." She moaned softly, and Hector laughed as they crept through the passage. He only stopped laughing when Eugenia waved at him to shush him, and then she climbed a narrow staircase that had been carved into the side of the wall and disappeared onto a ledge overhead.</p><p>Hector scrambled up after her, as quietly as he could manage, and they laid belly-down side by side on the wooden ceiling, peering through a carved vent in the ceiling onto a small inner room of the palace. Through the carved whorls of wood, Hector could see the top of his father's curly hair, silver strands woven through the dark curls, catching the lamplight. He was sitting placidly, hand folded over hook, and in a small carved bed beside him, Theodora snored peacefully, her small pink body swaddled in embroidered blankets. The room was as quiet as a tomb, and Hector thought that his father might even be asleep as well, but he shifted in his chair and turned, a second before there was a soft knock at the door.</p><p>The king rose and crossed to the door, pulling it open himself, no attendants on either side to assist him. Hector watched him embrace the two men who stepped in, one tall and thin and darker skinned than Hector, and the other wider, built like a career soldier, bronzed from the sun. They were both dressed simply, scarves over their heads to keep the winter sun off, like farmers just come in from market.</p><p>"Your melon story has reached Ferria." The tall one, Kamet, said by way of greeting.</p><p>Hector couldn't see his father's expression, but he elbowed Eugenia and she elbowed him back in the darkness. Eugenides responded mildly, "That's less my story and more my daughter's, I'm afraid my rumor making days are behind me."</p><p>"Hardly." The thicker man, Costis, muttered. Eugenides turned to look at him.</p><p>"You're looking as impassive as ever, Costis. I don't think you've sparred with my son yet. He's been practicing with the Royal Guard this last year. Perhaps I should add you to tomorrow morning's roster?" Hector felt an elbow at his hip. He didn't elbow Eugenia back, he was too caught up in what his father might say about him to either of the visitors. Hector knew he hadn't been blessed by his father's god in the same way his sister had, even though he was pretty sure he was still under some kind of divine providence. Everyone knew Hector would be Attolis someday, but it was Eugenia's name the attendants and ambassadors whispered about, her antics that created rumors that created stories that were heard on the other side of the continent. She was already making a name for herself, even if they were still mostly childish pranks. Everyone this side of the Mede Empire knew to watch out for her father, and therefore also for her. It was difficult growing up in the shadow of that, and mostly Hector was just pleased to be included, but hearing his name sent a shock of hope through him, that maybe he too could be the sort of person people wrote stories about, someday.</p><p>"Does he take a hit as poorly as you do?" Costis asked, his voice just as mild. Hector narrowed his eyes.</p><p>"Hector is as stoic as his namesake, gods save us all." Eugenides responded, and Hector felt a flush of pride. He had never met his grandfather, but he'd heard enough stories of his valor in battle that he thought the comparison might be a compliment, despite his father's sarcastic tone.</p><p>Eugenides invited the men to sit, and Kamet explained what he'd come to say. Most of it had to do with movement of the Braels, and Hector didn't pay much attention, until Kamet pulled two paper wrapped packages out of his leather satchel.</p><p>The first was rectangular. "In addition, I come bearing gifts for your children, Your Majesty. This is from a scholar at Myrna."</p><p>"That's quite kind Kamet, I imagine you had Hector in mind?" Eugenides asked.</p><p>Kamet smiled warmly. "He is my second favorite person to discuss poetry with. This is a new translation of Ferrian verse in seven different languages." Hector, hiding behind the screen, squeezed his nails into his palms in excitement.</p><p>"My little scholar." Eugenides said fondly, taking the wrapped parcel from Kamet. "Although perhaps not so little anymore. His Ferrian is terrible, I imagine this might help."</p><p>"And for the princess..." Kamet began, voice hesitant. He turned to Costis, one eyebrow raised, and Costis pulled something shiny out of the pocket of his shawl. He held it out towards Eugenides, who did not take it from him, but leaned forward to inspect it.</p><p>Hector and Eugenia both shifted forward slightly, peering through the carved wood of the vent. Hector wasn't sure what the object was. It looked like a lump of gold with holes all the way through it, Costis's equally gold skin glowing through.</p><p>"There is a new national sport in Ferria. This is their weapon of choice. The last time I saw the princess she punched me in the knee and I limped around for a week. I thought she might like this once the suitors start coming around."</p><p>"Suitors!" Eugenides exclaimed, but he took the gold item out of Costis's hand, and as he did, the holes slipped over his fingers, the item hugging his knuckles like a glove.</p><p>"Oh! That is handy. I'd heard of the street fighting in Ferria. The duke seems to think they're riots."</p><p>Kamet spoke up. "It's for sport. Mostly. Some of them are banding together, forming gangs in the cities. It might be worth keeping an eye on. In any case, they're very flashy about it. The metal knuckles are branded with the fighter's initials, or brand, so that everyone knows who the winner of the match is for weeks afterward." </p><p>Costis said, his face as impassive as always. "Kamet hates it."</p><p>"It's disgusting." Kamet said delicately, and Costis's face broke into a rare smile. Eugenides smiled as well.</p><p>"Well, it's certainly more ostentatious than a glass of wine." Eugenides mused, and Kamet coughed into his hand. "Although I imagine this won't fit her hand until she really is in danger of suitors." He shook his head. "Suitors. Any more bad news from either of you?"</p><p>"No, your majesty." They said, echoing each other.</p><p>Eugenides said goodbye to both of them, and they headed out, Eugenides closing the door behind them. His hand was still in the golden weapon, and he flexed his fingers, looking down at the way the metal glinted in the lamplight.</p><p>"I suppose you two want your gifts now, then?" Eugenides asked the now quiet room, and Hector felt Eugenia's elbow bite into his stomach. It was only then that Eugenides turned his face up to the vent, and smiled directly at them. "Well?"</p><p>They both hesitated, caught. Hector knew they’d been silly and stupid to eavsdrop, but his father didn’t seem angry, merely bemused. Eugenia was the first to move, pushing the vent out of its frame and clambering down gracefully. Hector followed her sheepishly.</p><p>"I'm not going to have any suitors." Eugenia declared softly, and Eugenides laughed, glancing at his youngest, somehow still sleeping, daughter.</p><p>His father passed Hector the heavy book, and Hector tried not to clutch it to his chest like a child with their birthday present, but it was difficult not to. Eugenia's new knuckles didn't fit over her hand yet, just as Eugenides had surmised, and he warned her not to wield them anywhere her mother could see.</p><p>"If your brother starts showing up at dinner with bruises, we will all be in trouble." He told her sternly. But it had been years since the pair had tussled. Hector spent as much time as he could reading, and Eugenia... well, Eugenia spent her time sneaking around. "In fact, I think it's time you began practicing with the Guard as well. Give Teleus's men something to do besides gamble."</p><p>"Oh Da, no!"</p><p>"Oh Da, yes. Your brother is learning the sword because his mother deems it necessary, and I've only been lenient with you because I am a soft old man who does not want to see his children grown. But if you are being gifted weapons, you are going to learn to use them. Properly."</p><p>Eugenia sighed, but it sounded resigned.</p><p>"Speaking of your mother..." Eugenides turned to look up at the vent, hanging open on the wall. "It's time you two went and found your attendants. I will see you at dinner." He watched them climb back into the vent. When the panel had closed, Eugenides left the room, and a moment later, Theo's nurse reappeared.</p><p>The twins walked back to their chamber through the narrow passage. Eugenia flexed her hand as they went, the knuckles sliding around on her narrow fingers.</p><p>"They'll fit someday." Hector reassured her. "You'll be punching suitors in no time."</p><p>She grinned at him. "I know. Suitors though? Da's out of his mind. I'm not getting married."</p><p>"No? What will you do instead."</p><p>She grinned. "Da stole Hamiathes’s Gift out from Mum's nose when he was nineteen, I've got to do better than that. I've only got a few years to plan if I want to steal something really good."</p><p>Hector thought as they walked. The story of Hamiathes’s Gift was legendary, and over the years, he’d heard more versions of the tale than he could count. It was hard to imagine Eugenia usurping their father’s achievement, but if anyone could do it, he knew she could. Hector thought about Kamet, and the way their father’s friend spoke about his former home. Kamet always sounded sad when he spoke about the royal family there, as if he wanted to hate them more than he did, in their sumptuous golden palaces built on the backs of slaves. Despite whatever feelings he may have had, he still assisted their father in dealing the Empire a humiliating blow the year before Hector and Eugenia had been born. Kamet was his father’s dear friend now, coming and going with Costis, gaining information and helping Eugenides keep his new home safe. Hector wondered if Kamet would be interested in assisting with throwing some salt in the Mede Empires thirteen-year-old wounds. "I read the other day that the Mede Emperor's wife keeps peacocks. They're supposedly sacred, somehow. I can’t remember why. We should ask Kamet. Do you think you could steal peacocks? They'd match the elephants in the garden."</p><p>"Those were from the war. It's different I think. I'd have to dedicate the peacocks to Eugenides." She sounded disappointed, but she had a familiar look in her eye. He'd managed to interest her, at the very least.</p><p>"So what you’re saying is that the temple acolytes would have to clean peacock poop out of the marble? All of the time?" Hector asked innocently.</p><p>She stopped walking. He watched the grin grow across her face. "I take back everytime I've ever called you a boring wimp."</p><p>Hector thought about it. "That's a lot of times."</p><p>"This makes up for it. How much do you know about these peacocks?"</p><p>"Not as much as what's in the library. Or Kamet."</p><p>Eugenia's eyes lit up this time. They'd made it back to the panel in the wall where Gen had pulled Hector in. She paused, one hand on the panel, listening. On the other side of the wall, Hector recognized the voice of Aristides, the most senior of his and Eugenia's attendants, arguing with what sounded like some guards. He didn't sound panicked, just angry, which was a good sign for whatever Hector and Gen were about to walk into. They were both going to get lectured by their attendants, their guards, their mother, and possibly their father as well, even if he'd just given them gifts. Hector had a thought that he might be in for a lecture from Relius too, but now that he was thinking about something new to research, it didn't sound so bad. Eugenia slipped the golden knuckles into a pocket of the soft slacks she wore and turned to appraise him.</p><p>"Hector." Eugenia asked softly. "Are you going to help me steal the sacred birds of the Mede Empire?"</p><p>Hector grinned back at her.</p>
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